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VOL. XXXVI • NO. 192 • 4 SECTIONS 20 PAGES • P20 SATURDAY, AUGUST 27, 2022 • www.manilastandard.net • mst.daydesk@gmail.com
Gov’t eyes more borrowings Diokno says P1.16-t budget deficit seen with revenue shortfall next year
By Maricel V. Cruz
T
HE government expects to borrow from mostly domestic sources to cover the projected P1.16trillion budget deficit next year, Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno said Friday. At a budget briefing for the House of Representatives, Diokno said total revenue projections for 2023 came to P3.6 trillion against a budget of P5.268 trillion, resulting in a deficit of P1.16 trillion (see related story in Business, page B4 — Editors). When Albay 1st District Rep. Edcel
FOR SMALL BIZ.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. (left) holds a plaque with (from left) Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual, US Ambassador to the Philippines MaryKay Carlson, and Go Negosyo founder Joey Concepcion at the MSME Summit 2022 at the Manila Hotel on Friday.
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Hefty oil price hike up by as much as P5/l By Alena Mae S. Flores PUMP prices are expected to go up by more than P5 per liter for diesel and kerosene next week. "Based on the four-day monitoring, there will be an increase in the prices of petroleum products due to high demand brought about by the harvest and winter season," said Rodela Romero, director III of the Department of Energy's Oil Industry Management Bureau. Next page
PBBM vows to revitalize small, medium businesses By Vince Lopez and Rey E. Requejo REVIVING micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSME) in the country is one of the administration's top priorities, President Ferdinand
Marcos Jr. said Friday. Mr. Marcos made the assurance during the MSME Summit 2022 at the Manila Hotel in the City of Manila. "As your President, I assure you that the revitalization of MSMEs is among the administration's top priorities," he said in his keynote
speech, acknowledging the MSMEs' "critical" role in the country's economic regeneration, job creation, and poverty reduction. MSMEs comprise 99.51 percent of business establishments in the Philippines and employ about 63 percent of the country's workforce.
In the same event, US Ambassador to the Philippines MaryKay Carlson said the US supports the growth of the country's digital economy and encouraged more MSMEs to participate. One of the embassy’s projects in Next page
Mining group bucks tax bill, 350k sacks of sugar found in Cavite bodegas says sector may lose gains By Othel V. Campos THE Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (CoMP) expressed concern over a proposed tax measure that may push back recent gains for the mining sector and deter prospective investments in the sector. The bill passed by the House committee on ways and means proposes the imposition of a royalty tax of 5 percent on gross output of large-scale
mining operations, while increasing the share of the government to 60 percent of net revenues. The proposed legislation will also place a 10-percent export tax on mineral ore exports, to encourage domestic processing of mineral products. CoMP said that while the proposed measure runs contrary to pronouncements of the new administration, there were no consultations that would enable industry
AROUND 350,000 sacks of sugar, most of them imported, were found in three warehouses in Silang, Cavite, as the government continues its crackdown against possible sugar hoarding, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said Friday. Authorities also discovered 36,000
bags of local sugar, DTI Undersecretary Ruth Castelo said. This developed as the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) is pushing for the restoration of the P2billion fund for the implementation of the Sugar Industry Development Act (SIDA).
Speaking at the Philippine Sugar Technologists Association’s 68th Annual National Convention at the SMX Convention Center in Bacolod City on Thursday, acting SRA Administrator David John Thaddeus Alba said the SIDA fund was further reduced to only P500 Next page
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ON FIRE.
The MV Asia Philippines burns near the port of Batangas on Friday. PCG Photo
BUDGET MEETING. Speaker Martin Romualdez (inset) addresses his colleagues
as he leads the members of the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) in briefing the House Committee on Appropriations on the state of the economy and the macro-economic parameters the Executive branch used in putting together next year’s spending program. Ver Noveno
Budget chief: Don't abolish PS-DBM By Maricel V. Cruz
73 saved from ferry fire off Batangas port A FERRY caught fire off a port near Batangas port on Friday, leaving nine people missing and one injured, the coast guard said. Emergency services rescued 73 of the 82 people who had been on board the MV Asia
Philippines as it burned near the port, a coast guard statement said. They included a middle-aged woman who was taken to hospital with an unspecified injury, the statement Next page
BUDGET Secretary Amenah Pangandaman on Friday appealed to legislators to give its procurement service a chance following calls to abolish it over its role in the purchase of overpriced laptops for public school teachers. In the past, she said, the office under the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) saved the government some P18 billion by buying in bulk equipment and supplies for various agencies.
“I think if we give a chance to PSDBM and if we clean the process and the system of the procurement of the PSDBM, maybe we can go back to its old glory,” she said. Pangandaman also assured legislators that PS-DBM under its new leadership headed by lawyer Dennis Santiago, is “very respectable in the area” and that the agency already has plans on how to fix the procurement unit. Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Next page
TEACHERS TOLD TO FOCUS ON ACADEMICS NEWS / A2
MODERNA SUES PFIZER OVER VAX PATENT NEWS / A2